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Pildat event urges govt to do more on NAP

By Our Staff Reporter 2017-12-22
LAHORE: Speakers at a public forum arranged by PILDAT on Thursday pointed out deficiencies in the implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP) in Punjab and underscored the need for doing more to fight terrorism and radicalisation in the country.

PILDAT President Ahmed Bilal Mehboob presented the body`sFourth Quarterly Monitor on the Implementation of National Action Plan on Counter Terrorism in Punjab, showing a slight decline in the implementation of the plan and suggesting how to make improvements.

The speakers included former InteriorMinister retired Lt Gen Moinuddin Haider, former Punjab Governor Shahid Hamid, former Interior S e c r e t a r y Tasneem Noorani, NACTA National Coordinator Tariq Pervez, journalists Mujibur Rehman Shami and Arif Nizami.

Six MPAs including Ayesha Javed, Waheed Gull, Faiza Malik,Murad Rass and Rubina Hakim and civil society members were also present.

Gen Moinuddin Haider said many attempts at reforms were made in the recent years, but they usually failed at the implementation stage. He mentioned the delayed FATA reforms as an example. He added that the focus of political debate in the media recently had not been counter-terrorism, but the Panama case, JIT, judiciary etc. The government did not seem to have the willingness or the will to implement the NAP, he said.

He said Balochistan was the target of terrorism which has international links and destroyed many countries like Libya, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. The situation in Pakistan was not too bad. There had been many successes (against terrorism) but still a lot was required to be done, he said.

Mr Haider expressed his serious concern over resumption of street crime in Karachi on a large scale. There could be many reasons for this but one was the conflict between the Sindh government and its IGP. The IGP had detected 16,000 police officials either supporting criminals or were themselves criminals but he was not allowed to proceed against them, he said.

Mr Tariq Pervez found a lack of transparency in the implementation of NAP. While many executions had taken place since the moratorium on death penalty was lifted, very few of those executed were actually terrorists. He said NACTA was tasked with coordination of counter-terror-ism efforts, but the government had marginalised it.

There was little information about the criteria for forwarding cases to military courts.

Mr Tasneem Noorani said PILDAT`s quarterly assessment of NAP`s implementation was rigorous and it appeared that the plan was no longer a priority for the government.

Mr Shahid Hamid said the writ of the state had eroded because of recent events in the country.

Civil society activist Diep Saeeda commented that NAP had also been misused to increase the restrictions on the civil society activists. It also failed to protect the minorities. She pointed out that a young activist, Raza Khan, had been missing for the past 19 days, and civilian authorities were not aware of his whereabouts. She also mentioned the case of missing journalist Zeenat Shehzadi.

Mr Ahmad Bilal said during the third quarter of 2017, of the 15 NAP points pertaining to the performance of Punjab on its implementation, two points (NAP Point 6, which relates to choking terrorist financing, and 11, which relates to ban on glorification of terrorists through print and electronic media) have shown upward progress, while three points (NAP Point 7, which relates to ensuring there is no re-emergence of proscribed organizations, and Point No 13, which relates to the dismantling of terrorist networks, and Point No 15 which calls for zero-tolerance for militancy in Punjab) have shown a regression in their status of implementation.